August, Paula

Dellenbarger, Lynn E.

Schupp, Alvin R.

English

Research Papers in Economics

Boiled  Crawfish Consumption In Louisiana
Lynn E. Dellenbarger, Paula August and Alvin  Schupp
Louisiana  leads the world in acreage  devoted  Data And Logit Model
to  the  production  of  crawfish.  However,  other
countries,  specifically  China,  have  increased  During the spring of 1994,  3,000  households
crawfish production more  than Louisiana. Louisi-  in four rural  and four urban  parishes of Louisiana
ana crawfish  are  sold  internationally,  particularly  were surveyed  to identify their crawfish  and  sea-
in Europe  and Asia.  Even with increased  exports,  food  consumption  patterns.  The  four  urban  par-
70  percent  of the  state's  crawfish  crop  is  con-  ishes  included  Ascension,  Lafayette,  Ouachita
sumed  instate.  The  major  crawfish  products  are  and Rapides. Bienville,  Caldwell, Iberville and La
tail meat and boiled crawfish.  Salle were the four rural parishes. The names and
This  paper  examines  the  consumption  of  addresses of household's  were  obtained from  the
boiled crawfish  in Louisiana based  on a mail  sur-  Louisiana  Department  of Public  Safety  (vehicle
vey of households.  The first section  presents  pre-  registration  division).  A total of 858  useable  ob-
vious  research  results  concerning  crawfish  con-  servations were obtained  from the initial and  fol-
sumption.  The  second  section  provides  an  over-  low-up  mailings  (28.6%).  The  survey  requested
view of the data and  a logit model that is used to  estimates  of seafood  consumption  by species  and
estimate  the probability  of a household  consum-  whether  the household  had  purchased,  caught  or
ing boiled  crawfish.  The third section presents the  received  the  seafood  as  a gift.  The  focus of this
results  of this  analysis  and  the  fourth  section  paper  is on  crawfish  obtained  and  consumed  by
contains the conclusions and implications.  the household  in boiled form.
Of the 858  useable  observations, 203  house-
Previous Research  holds  reported  consuming  a  total  of  2,913.72
pounds of boiled crawfish. Average  boiled  craw-
Bebee  (1987)  surveyed  5,000  households  in  fish  consumption  per  household  was  14.35
Louisiana to ascertain their crawfish  consumption  pounds  over  the  five-day  survey  period.  The
patterns.  He  found  that as  income  increased  the  range of boiled crawfish consumption was 0.25 to
probability of consumption of crawfish decreased.  50 pounds. While the survey was taken during the
He  also  found  that  households  with  a  Catholic  harvest period for crawfish,  less  than  one fourth
religious preference  were more likely to consume  of  the  responding  households  had  consumed
crawfish than non-Catholics.  boiled  crawfish  in  the  five  days  preceding  the
Periera (1989) examined  crawfish consump-  survey.
tion nationally.  She  found that consumers  in the  Households  are  routinely  faced  with  deci-
Southern  region  of the United  States were  more  sions  to  consume  or  to  forego  consumption  of
likely  to  consume  crawfish  than  consumers  in  specific  items.  In  this  study,  households  were
other  areas  and  that  the  Pacific  region  was  the  asked  if  they  had  consumed  boiled  crawfish.
second most likely area to consume crawfish.  Logit  analysis  was  used  as  the  statistical  tech-
Dellenbarger  and  Schupp  (1991)  found  that  nique. Logit analysis  operates  as a binary choice
budget constraints did not influence crawfish con-  model.  The number  one  was  assigned  to  house-
sumption  in  Louisiana.  Cultural  beliefs,  moreo-  holds  consuming  boiled  crawfish  and  a  zero  to
ver, were a factor in the consumption of crawfish.  households  not  consuming  boiled  crawfish.  The
definition of variables  used in the logit model are
given in Table  1 and the descriptive  statistics are
Associate Professor, Former Work Study Student and Profes-  presented in Table 2.
sor,  Department  of Agricultural  Economics  and  Agribusi-
ness,  Louisiana  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Louisiana
State  University  Agricultural  Center,  Baton  Rouge,  Louisi-
ana.100 February  1996  Journal  of Food  Distribution  Research
Table 1. Logit Model Variable Definitions.  Results
Variable  Definition
Boiled  = I if the household consumed boiled  Table  3  presents  the  results  of  the  logit
crawfish, 0 otherwise  model. Income was a statistically significant vari-
Income  =  I if household income is greater than  able  in explaining the  probability  associated  with
$25,000, 0 otherwise  boiled  crawfish  consumption.  A  negative  sign Ind  = Number of individuals in  the household Urban  = Number of individuals  in  the household  isdicates  that boiled  crawfish  is an inferior good.
r  0 oitherwise  d is in a  u  p  The  number of individuals  residing  in the house-
White  =  if the household is white, 0 otherwise  hold  (a  statistically  significant  variable)  was
negatively  associated  with  boiled  crawfish  con-
Prot  =  1  if the household head is Protestant, 0  sumption.  Urban households  were  negatively  as-
otherwise  sociated with  boiled crawfish  consumption,  how-
Educ  =  1  if household has a high school  ever,  location  was  not  a  statistically  significant
education or less, 0 otherwise  variable.
The race variable was statistically significant
as white households were more likely to consume
Table 2.  Variable Descriptive Statistics.  boiled  crawfish  than  non  white  households.  The
Variable  Mean  Std. Dev.  Min  Max  Protestant  religious  preference  variable  was  sta-
Boil  0.2272  0.4193  0  1  tistically  significant,  however,  its  sign  was  con-
Income  0.6491  0.4775  0  1  trary to the hypothesis.  Education  was not a  sta-
Ind  2.9067  1.4694  1  10  tistically  significant  variable  with  respect  to
Urban  0.5944  0.4912  0  1  boiled crawfish consumption.  The marginal prob-
White  0.8997  0.3004  0  1  abilities  for the variables  used  in the model  were
Prot  0.4207  0.4939  0  1  calculated  and are presented in Table 3.
Educ  0.3892  0.4878  0  1
Note: Observations for all variables = 858.  Conclusions And Implications
Crawfish consumption  in  Louisiana  is often
Households  in  urban  areas  were  hypothe-  associated  with  the  Cajun  cultural  influence.
sized  to  have  a  lower probability  of consuming  During  the  spring,  Louisiana  households  have
boiled  crawfish since  previous  research  indicates  parties  where  boiled  crawfish  are  served.  Craw-
metro areas  tend to prefer  tailmeat.  Income  was  fish  consumption  is not  confined just to  Louisi-
hypothesized  to  have  a  negative  influence  on  ana. Other states and several  other countries  have
boiled  crawfish  since  higher  income  individuals  diversified  their agricultural  production  practices
can  buy  higher  priced  tail  meat.  From  Bebee's  and  are  producing  crawfish  to  supplement  farm
research,  it was  hypothesized  that  white  house-  incomes.
holds would have a higher probability of consum-  Results of this  research  indicate  that  house-
ing boiled crawfish than other racial groups. Due  holds with incomes below $25,000  should be tar-
to the cost of boiled crawfish,  ($1.29 a pound),  it  geted  for boiled  crawfish  consumption.  Unfortu-
was hypothesized  that the number of individuals  nately, boiled crawfish consumption declines with
residing  in  the  household  would  be  negatively  income.  Contrary  to  Bebee's  research  findings,
associated with boiled crawfish purchases. Due to  Protestants  had  a  higher  probability  of  boiled
the heavy Catholic  influence  in  South Louisiana,  crawfish  consumption  compared to six years ago
Catholics were expected to be more likely to con-  when  Catholics  had a higher  probability  of con-
sume boiled crawfish than non-Catholics. Educa-  suming  boiled  crawfish.  As  expected,  urban
tion was hypothesized  to be  positively associated  households have a lower probability of boiled
with boiled crawfish consumption.Dellenbarger,  August and  Schupp  Boiled Crawfish Consumption In Louisiana  101
Table 3. Logit Model  Analysis and Marginal Probabilities.
Variable  Parameter  Standard Error  Wald  Pr>  Marginal
Estimate  Chi-Square  Chi-Square  Probabilities
Intercept  1.2904  0.3422  14.2214  0.0002*
Income  -0.3965  0.1994  3.9531  0.0468*  -0.0569
Ind  -0.1290  0.0560  5.3122  0.0212*  -0.0185
Urban  -0.2345  0.1803  1.6925  0.1933  -0.0337
White  0.4967  0.2686  3.4204  0.0644*  0.0714
Prot  0.7442  0.1828  16.5762  0.0001  0.1070
Educ  0.0440  0.1848  0.0568  0.8117  0.0063
crawfish  consumption  compared  to  rural  house-  References
holds.
The  production  and  consumption  of  boiled  Bebee, D.  R.,  "Household  Consumption  Patterns  for Louisi-
crawfish will  continue to be of major importance  ana's Aquaculture Species: A  Limited Dependent Vari-
able Analysis", Unpublished  Masters Thesis,  Louisiana to the state of Louisiana.  China's entry into craw-  ae Unsit,  Unpublished  Masters Thesis, Louisiana ~f-u  J  ^.oduc  i.n  Jas  .enerate  strong  State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana,  1989. fish  production  has  generated  strong  competition  Dellenbarger,  L.  E.  and A. R. Schupp,  "Household  Seafood
for the Louisiana crawfish industry. These  results  Consumption  in Louisiana"  AEA  Information  Series.
indicate  that continued  attention  to  consumption  Department  of Agricultural  Economics  and  Agribusi-
patterns  of Louisiana  consumers  is  required  for  ness,  Louisiana Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Lou-
isiana State University Agricultural  Center.  1994. the industry to effectively target these markets.  Intriligator,  M.  D.,  Econometric  Models,  Techniques  and
Applications. Prentice Hall, Inc.  1978.
Periera,  C.,  "Seafood  Consumption  in  the  United  States"
Unpublished  Masters  thesis,  Department  of  Agricul-
tural  Economics  and  Agribusiness,  Louisiana  State
University,  Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1991.

indicate that continued attention to consumption Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusipatterns of Louisiana consumers is required for ness, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station,

BOILED CRAWFISH CONSUMPTION IN LOUISIANA

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